Tim Davis is an educator, mental health advocate, coach, and author of the book titled ‘TRIPOLAR: The Story of A Bipolar Triathlete’. In the previous episode featuring part one of two in our two-part mini-series on lived experience, Tim shared his story of childhood trauma and grief, substance use, and the mental health challenges he faced following the tragic passing of his father. He remains with the Public Health Insight Podcast to transition our conversation to focus on his experience with suicidal ideation, his bipolar diagnosis, and how running and triathlons became a crucial part of his path to recovery. Tim also shares some words of encouragement at the end of the episode for others who may be struggling with mental health illness, substance use and addictions.
Trigger Warning
Please note that this episode will discuss issues around mental illness and trauma, and may contain sensitive or triggering content. The purpose of this episode is to minimize the stigma associated with men’s mental illness and to create a culture in a society that promotes a safe space for men to be vulnerable and seek help when needed. If you or someone you love has been impacted by suicide, you are not alone. Please use your discretion when listening to this content and connect to the appropriate supports as needed. For our listeners in Canada, Crisis Services Canada offers a national suicide prevention hotline which can be reached at 1 833 456 4566 or by text at 45645. Another resource for people who prefer to correspond via text message is Crisis Text Line - you can get in touch with trained Crisis Counsellors 24/7 by texting ‘CONNECT’ to 686868.
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Music Credits
Tim Davis is an educator, mental health advocate, coach, and author of the book titled ‘TRIPOLAR: The Story of A Bipolar Triathlete’. In the previous episode featuring part one of two in our two-part mini-series on lived experience, Tim shared his story of childhood trauma and grief, substance use, and the mental health challenges he faced following the tragic passing of his father. He remains with the Public Health Insight Podcast to transition our conversation to focus on his experience with suicidal ideation, his bipolar diagnosis, and how running and triathlons became a crucial part of his path to recovery. Tim also shares some words of encouragement at the end of the episode for others who may be struggling with mental health illness, substance use and addictions.
Trigger Warning
Please note that this episode will discuss issues around mental illness and trauma, and may contain sensitive or triggering content. The purpose of this episode is to minimize the stigma associated with men’s mental illness and to create a culture in a society that promotes a safe space for men to be vulnerable and seek help when needed. If you or someone you love has been impacted by suicide, you are not alone. Please use your discretion when listening to this content and connect to the appropriate supports as needed. For our listeners in Canada, Crisis Services Canada offers a national suicide prevention hotline which can be reached at 1 833 456 4566 or by text at 45645. Another resource for people who prefer to correspond via text message is Crisis Text Line - you can get in touch with trained Crisis Counsellors 24/7 by texting ‘CONNECT’ to 686868.
Share Your Thoughts With Us!
Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. We would love it if you shared your thoughts by commenting on our posts, sending us a direct message through social media, or by emailing us at ThePublicHealthInsight@gmail.com. Until then, we’ll see you in the next one.
Support Our Show
If you like our show, feel free to lend us some support by making a contribution on our Patreon page (link below) so we can continue creating the content that you enjoy as we expand the Public Health Insight Community.
Music Credits
[00:00:00] Tim Davis: I got to give the credit to the rooms of alcoholics anonymous and narcotics anonymous, because I've learned we have all these cliches things and they're just, they're so good. Like one day at a time easy, does it let go, let go. Acceptances the answer and have gratitude. I think the people I know who are leading very positive lives, usually they start their day with a daily gratitude, but it's, whether it's writing it down or running through it in your head. I know for me, I start and end my day with prayer and and gratitude, I do, I say my prayers and then I do my gratitude list. I always do at least five or 10 things that I'm grateful for and I always say, I'm grateful for my life. I'm grateful for most sobriety and good for the higher power that I believe in. I'm grateful for my wife, my kids, my sponsor, my sponsees, and I am grateful for all my accomplishments.
[00:00:47] Narrator: This is the public health insight podcast.
[00:00:51] Gordon: Tim Davis is an educator, mental health advocate, coach and author of the book titled: Tripolar, the story of a [00:01:00] bipolar triathlete. In the previous episode, featuring part one of two in our two part mini series on lived experience, Tim shared his story of childhood trauma and grief, substance use, and the mental health challenges he faced following the tragic passing of his father.
[00:01:17] In this episode, we transition our conversation to focus on his experience with suicidal ideation, bipolar diagnosis, and how running and triathlons became a crucial part of his path to recovery. Tim also shares some words of encouragement at the end of the episode for others who may be struggling with mental illness, substance use and addictions.
[00:01:40] This is where we left off: according to the national Institute of mental health and estimated 4.4% of the us adult population. Experienced bipolar disorder at some point in their life and the prevalence of the bipolar disorder between male and females are pretty similar at about 3%.
[00:01:59] [00:02:00] So I wanted to see if you could speak to a little bit about how, when you first learned that you were diagnosed with bipolar disorder and how this kind of shaped the way you would kind of live your life from that.
[00:02:12] Tim Davis: Okay, I was age 27 when I was first diagnosed bipolar, and for two years, I've been trying to figure out how to get sober and I think I was out of- coming out of my third rehab after another, three month relapse. I was in rehab for two months or no, two weeks, two weeks, but the whole two weeks, I was just- I thought I just had insomnia, but I was in a manic episode. I didn't realize it, and I couldn't sleep.
[00:02:37] I read through all the AA big books and all this stuff they told me to read and rehab and did all the step work and just cause I couldn't sleep. Just highlighting the book, taking notes, the wrote my own book then. When I got out of rehab, my wife wasn't ready for me to come back and I didn't know where I was going to stay, cause I hadn't prior to that, I was checking into rehab. I was living out of my car for . The last three months cause I was kicked out of the house and then her parents decided they'd put me [00:03:00] up, but I went there and I still couldn't sleep, and I just, had this, I made this decision. I'm like, you know what? I can't get sober. I don't know how to live life sober. I don't know how to live life not sober.
[00:03:10] At that time, I decided the world would be better off without me. So I proceeded to start journaling, which ended up turning into a six page suicide letter with basically the F word was every other word, and like the long and short of it was the world would be better off without me. And then I finished that letter I left that note in the room and I called my wife and my mom and told them that. Then my plan was to go jump in front of a train, but then I drove to the train tracks and then I was walking along and I was like, think jumping in front of the train wouldn't feel very good. Luckily my wife or my mom had called the authorities and they came and swept me up. And I got put into a suicide tank for a week on a 51 50. And it was after that, that I saw the psychiatrist there at the hospital and that's Dina, and that's when I got diagnosed bipolar was after that, I guess you could call it a suicide [00:04:00] attempt.
[00:04:00] I mean, I didn't jump from the train. I did walk alongside the tracks, but I didn't actually walk on the tracks. But I certainly had suicidal ideation. And then I was in rehab again at dual-diagnosis unit this time, and I do remember when they told me I was bipolar, I was angry. I did not want to believe that I had one more thing wrong with me.
[00:04:19] I was already distraught. I couldn't figure out how to stay sober from alcohol and addiction, and now I've got this double whammy and it took me a couple of years to really accept that diagnosis and stick to the treatment plan and become med compliant. Cause some of the meds they tried on me and gave me the shakes. Some of the the meds, they gave me increase my appetite too much and cause too much weight gain. And it took a while for them, and that's the thing when you get diagnosed with bipolar is different meds, work, different people, different ways. We all have different biochemistry. So that's my advice to anybody when you first get diagnosed is to be patient your doctors, some meds are going to not work and work for different people. So you just gotta try it for a little while, and if it's not working, you gotta let your psychiatrist know, but stick with it. [00:05:00] Strongly advise, take the meds they tell you to give because every time I went off my meds, I relapsed. I started self-medicating with drugs and alcohol again.
[00:05:10] Gordon: And communicate with your doctor, if you have any side effects, that's important too.
[00:05:14] Tim Davis: Very important.
[00:05:16] Linda: It's your bipolar diagnosis was such an integral part of your recovery, but for so many people and men, especially talking about mental health is stigmatized and, we know that on average one men does by suicide every minute. And the rate of male suicide is about six out of 10 suicide occur in men. And so I just, I find it so both striking, but also can be empowering for others because it shows that having that diagnosis helps push you that extra step to get to where you are now in recovery and so, although it could be scary and definitely there is still a lot of stigma it's important to talk about. [00:06:00]
[00:06:00] Tim Davis: Yeah but the other thing that actually a positive thing for me was that I was working for Los Angeles unified school district at the time, and they have very good health benefits and once I had the dual diagnosis with them, the bipolar disorder and not just the alcohol and addiction, I got qualified for a lot more treatment.
[00:06:16] So I was able to get a lot more treatment and stay longer in the hospital. Try and get well and see the psychiatrist more. So that was a good benefit but on another note I was still so ashamed of my bipolar that I only told like my direct family and a few close friends and I really kind of, kept it anonymous for everybody else that was in my life because I kinda was ashamed of it for a long time. I just didn't like to talk about it for many years.
[00:06:39] Gordon: Just a personal question to pose to you. It sounds like being diagnosed with an alcohol addiction was a seminal moment in your life, and then bipolar. Is there which of the two do you think kind of, I know you mentioned that bipolar- being diagnosed with bipolar made you angry because it was a second thing added on to the alcohol [00:07:00] addiction, but was there- if you had to say one of the two, which one was the harder pill to swallow, was it the first one? Or it sounds like bipolar, you kind of, took the matter, took matters into your own hand and, you mentioned having benefits through your employer and you were able to seek help. So I don't know if you could speak to those two defining moments of your life, maybe compare and contrast how it affected you.
[00:07:21] Tim Davis: Okay. Yeah. That's a very good question. Thanks for asking that. I would say. With the alcoholism and addiction. I kind of always knew that the one way I drank and used was not right. And I tried various ways of my own methods to try and either cut back or kind of control and enjoy my drink and using it.
[00:07:39] And I continued to fail after time. But I always knew that the way I drank and use was not right. I should either somehow figure out how to cut back, which is my hope is that I could learn how to moderate. But I knew I needed to quit. And then with the bipolar, it was a much harder pill to swallow because I didn't know much about mental health.
[00:07:56] And I was very angry when I got first diagnosed. I did not want to [00:08:00] believe it. So that was definitely a harder one to accept for me.
[00:08:05] Gordon: And it's almost like from reading the book too, it's you almost felt that at any time, whether it was true or false, that you could control this, the alcohol part, if you want it to, and now you get diagnosed with bipolar, it's it's not something you can control.
[00:08:17] So it sounds that wasn't, things are becoming increasingly more out of your control with that diagnosis.
[00:08:23] Tim Davis: Yes. Yes. And that was very hard.
[00:08:26] Gordon: So thanks for sharing your story. We touched on kind of all those experiences that brought you to where you are now and those experiences define who you are today, but I wanted to touch on chapter 18, when you started talking about your triathlons, which you're very passionate about. In adults age 18 to 64 we know that physical activity includes leisure time, physical activities, such as walking, dancing, gardening, hiking, you name it. The world health organization recommends we should be getting at least 150 [00:09:00] minutes of moderate intensity, aerobic, physical activity throughout the week. And you have people like you, Tim, triathlon's not on the list, but somehow you're in the world of competing and participating in these triathlons. So how do we get from your earliest experiences with your father tragically dying to participating in triathlon?
[00:09:21] Tim Davis: Wow to go from my father, dying to your triathlons. That was a long journey. I went through high school, playing football, basketball, running track, and I enjoyed running track. I ran the one mile two mile and I was a distance runner. And then in high school, around in college, when I was trying to control and enjoy my drinking, I started running a marathon every year.
[00:09:42] I ran the LA marathon for three years, freshmen, sophomore, junior year. My senior year, I was drinking and partying too much to train and commit to it and then after college, for a couple of years, I got out of doing that and then we had kids. When I first got sober at age 25, 26, I did a couple of sprints Olympic [00:10:00] distance triathlons while I was, in some periods of sobriety, but then I had a second kid, my disease, I get into some dark years for a few more years, and I finally got sober I guess somewhere in 2004 and I stayed separate for three years and two months. During that time I started wearing a few half marathons in a couple of marathons, but I was really overweight, I was probably around 230lb, most of that period as always running much slower. And then I had that last relapse in March, 2007 and my sobriety date I should say is June 15th, 2007. I've been sober since then. So I got 13 years in a couple of years, so. And then my first year of sobriety, like when I, I gained about 60 pounds and by the time I was a year and a half sober, I was up to 250 pounds and I was most depressed. I remember it was December 31st, 2008 was the new year's Eve before 2009, stepped on the scale, said 250lb. And I just had this thought, wow. At 250 lb rounds up, it was a math and science teacher and 250lb rounds at the 300 and I'm like at this rate, I'm going to end up, ended up on that show "The Biggest Loser" or something and that'll be the only way I can [00:11:00] lose weight. So basically, in my head, I said, screw that, and I'm like, starting tomorrow, I'm going to stop eating seconds, I'm going to start going to the gym every day, and I'm not allowed to watch TV or play video games unless I'd exercise for at least an hour.
[00:11:13] And that was just the three simple things I did. So, and then on January 1st, 2009, first thing I did was went to the gym and got on the treadmill, I'm like, "let's see how fast you can run a mile. right now". I'd also been chain packing- chain smoking a pack of cigarettes a day up until that point and it took me 12 minutes to run a mile and I was like, "man, this really sucks". In high school, I could run a subs. In high school, I ran a sub five minute mile. It was my last seven minutes, and so that was my goal was like, you know what, I'm just going to keep running a mile every day and eventually, the weight will come off and I'll be able to get faster again.
[00:11:46] And then I started running two and three miles a day and just slowly progressed. Six months later, I was running a half marathon again, and I was back down to 6 minute miles. I was already 35 years old, so I wasn't worried about trying to run a sub five minute mile again, but I did get down at around [00:12:00] six months, I lost 60 pounds and then I had this weird injury.
[00:12:04] I had this hip fusion. I don't know. I went to see a couple different specialists. Nobody could quite diagnose it, but basically in my right hip, it just felt like there was, I don't know, like a giant railroad spike in it. Every time I tried to run, it just hurt really bad and I couldn't get an accurate diagnosis until one doctor finally said, no, what we think happened is you just lost so much weight so fast that your body's kind of out of whack and it's just trying to realign itself. So for two or three months, I couldn't run and, but I could swim and bike. So I just started cross-training and I was like, swimming and biking every day and then my body kind of recalibrated and I could start running again and I was like, hey, I should try a triathlon again because it had been several years since 2000 when I had done one. When it was 2009 and I went out and did this Hanson dam triathlon here in LA county and I went out there with a mountain bike and basketball shorts in the old beat up helmet and I wasn't really, looking like all these triathlon guys, [00:13:00] but you know, like I'm just going to go out there and do it.
[00:13:01] I ended up getting 16th in my age division, which I thought was amazing. He was just planning to finish. And I was like, wow if I actually, kinda, really trained and get some of the better gear that these guys got, the Aero helmet and a real carbon fiber Chavela bike, and some other things I could do this much faster. I never became a professional, but I finished, like top three in my age group in some races and I really just caught the bug as they say, and started trying to do every triathlon I could find. Then I started doing longer and longer ones, a couple months later I was doing my first half Ironman. I did my first half iron man, October, 2009 and then I was like, wow. I felt great after doing a half iron man, I'm like, if I can do a half iron man and I feel this good, I could probably do an iron man. 10 months later I was doing my first iron man and just after I did that one, I was like, wow. I was a little sore and tired after that, but I felt good and I'm like, wow, if I can do my first, I did it in 12 hours and 42 minutes. I'm like, maybe I can do it faster. That just became the thing is, and for several years I did two iron mans a year and I kept chasing faster times and personal [00:14:00] records. Then I started ultra running.
[00:14:02] Leshawn: Yeah. Wow. It's great to hear about your passion for, triathlons and marathons and all these accomplishments. How did the running contribute to kind of your, controlling or, maintaining physical and mental wellbeing during all that was going on?
[00:14:19] Tim Davis: Well, basically I saved my life cause for me being an alcoholic and addict with bipolar disorder they say we have a disease of a threefold nature, it's physical, mental, and spiritual, and I can take care of, the mental part by staying med compliant.
[00:14:33] I could take care of the spiritual part by going to my 12 step meetings, it's sponsoring guys and being sponsored and doing my step work. but the physical part, as you're getting the benefits from the running, high like sometimes I was still an antsy cause I'm a type two bipolar, rapid cycler, so I have highs and lows throughout the course of the day and I get kind of hypomanic all the time.
[00:14:53] I just have this energy, I need to burn off and I can't always get to a meeting but I can always put on my running shoes, if I got a half hour, I can go out and [00:15:00] drink for your five miles during my lunch break or whatever. So it just, it's been a lifesaver when I can't get to 12 step meetings or to, anything, any other kind of stress outlet.
[00:15:08] I just stopped always turn to, running biking or swimming. It's been a lifesaver. I don't know what I, my wife can tell if I haven't exercised in a day or two, she's like you're getting really cranky. You need to go for a run.
[00:15:21] Leshawn: Yeah. One of my favorite lines of, when you talk about your triathlons is "I became tripolar to treat my bipolar". Can you explain a bit about what that means and what that means to you?
[00:15:32] Tim Davis: Yeah. I just, cause I have bipolar disorder and I am a triathlete. I just liked the term tripolar because for me tripolar was taking care of the mind, body and spirit, like I said, it's a disease of a threefold nature.
[00:15:45] So there's the Trinity of working on those three things that kind of become a holistic person and in a triathlon, you swim, you bike, you run. So there's that, that Trinity of those three disciplines, to complete one type of race. And so that's why I like the word tripolar, [00:16:00] cause I'm a bipolar triathlete.
[00:16:01] So yeah and it just once I found triathlons, I really felt steady in my recovery. It was like this one more thing that I'd needed to do for self-care so that I can really feel stable and, lead a balanced life and a successful life. Well, I, because I've had many successes now and sobriety, once I end in recovery since I found, exercising in any form really to manage my bipolar.
[00:16:21] Linda: Also, it's interesting to me, how running has been just a common thread in your life from, even prior to, before having your bipolar diagnosis, before where you are in recovery now. What I noticed is that it seemed earlier on, you were running from experiences, running from difficult emotions, but now I'm curious, what is your motivation?
[00:16:47] Do you feel that you're still running from something or is it more so running towards a goal, for example?
[00:16:52] Tim Davis: Wow. It really depends on the day and my mood. Generally I'm running towards goals because for [00:17:00] me, when I train, if I don't have a race that I'm training for, I don't know what the point is to get up, put on my running shoes.
[00:17:07] So I've always had a busy race schedule. I've finished one race, and I'm already thinking about the next one. When I have painful things happen, like my brother died from alcoholism two years ago at age 32.
[00:17:16] Gordon: Sorry to hear that.
[00:17:17] Linda: So, sorry.
[00:17:18] Tim Davis: Yeah and when he died I couldn't get to a meeting, but I could go run and the first chance I got I- I loved mountain running trail running I'm an ultra runner and we have beautiful Angeles national forest and give them mountains. I took off running and I did 31 miles and all I brought with water, I didn't even bring, normally I bring like several cliff bars in the impact food, and I just ran and ran and ran.
[00:17:39] I just felt so good to just get a long run in, that takes several hours and it's just there's this group out here called riots, which stands for running is our therapy. Sometimes when life's problems get me down, be it stress at work or, a different issue with one of my three kids is raising kids can be stressful, as we all know I can go out for a run and it doesn't have to be a 30 mile run.
[00:17:59] It could be a three or five [00:18:00] mile run at a short run and I can't think of the problem or solution right there when I'm at home and I'm stressed out about it, but I can go out and run and I can kind of clear my head and I feel I hit this meditative state and then I find the solution and sometimes the solution is just have acceptance, or just be loving and tolerant, don't, there's just a lot of times I can go run and clear my head so you got solutions to my problems.
[00:18:22] Linda: That's powerful.
[00:18:23] Gordon: Yeah and that brings me to what you said in, in chapter 25, you said something like that, you know that your running days are numbered and that culture running career has an expiration date. Yeah and you said, but I'm glad that I found it, my tripolar way to deal with that too. So what are some other ways coping strategies that you're gonna adopt when you're not able to be as active of a runner one day?
[00:18:47] Tim Davis: Well, I've recently started kayaking and I figured, I can do elliptical and spin classes and when it comes to it, I'll find even more low impact sports like Aqua aerobics or whatever.
[00:18:58] Cause I go to the gym [00:19:00] well, when the gyms were up and I go to the gym and some of my friends are in there and I have a lot of older friends there and they're doing the Aqua aerobics and I'm just like, that's going to be me one day when my body can't tolerate so much of that running entails. That's fine, and I'm figuring I'll take up other hobbies.
[00:19:16] Maybe I'll write another book. I've started meditating more recently with another 12 step fellowship I'm going to, they will highly recommend meditation. So I like sitting still for five or 10 minutes a day. Meditation is a practice and I have a hard time sitting still, but if I can get to 10 minutes as this program suggests, I'm doing pretty good.
[00:19:33] Yeah. I know some people do it for hours. I don't know how they do it, but maybe I'll get there one day.
[00:19:40] Linda: Just on hearing other ways that you're finding to, to help stay or to help maintain your recovery. I wonder what you would say to someone who perhaps wants to try to implement something new. Maybe they want to get into exercise and want to get into running or another activity that you've mentioned, but they're just [00:20:00] struggling with that first hurdle of just beginning.
[00:20:04] What could you say to kind of speak into that and how to perhaps encourage somebody who could benefit.
[00:20:11] Tim Davis: All right. Well, in the words of Bill Murray from the movie, "what about Bob?" I would strongly suggest baby steps. If you guys haven't seen that movie, you should check it out. It's really funny if it's Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfus- Richard Dreyfus is the therapist and bill Murray is kind of the patient but it ends up having a role reversal, but yeah, baby steps. I'm sorry. I digress there. Just start small, like when I, in 2009, I just said, I'm just going to run a mile a day until I feel like I could run more, and I wasn't even running them on. I was like walking and half walking, half running and I couldn't run a straight mile, I had to walk a lot. So even if it's just, walked around your block or whatever the sport you choose is just commit to starting out 5 or 10 minutes, even just doing a few minutes, it's better than doing no minutes. So start out doing what you can do and just build up from there. Every few weeks, add a few more minutes or a few more miles or whatever it is, and then you [00:21:00] can progress untill you find, your happy medium, I mean, or whatever your goal is for the distance or time you want to put it in whatever sport it might be or activity it is.
[00:21:09] Gordon: Yeah. That's a great point because I feel like, if you set your goal, as I am going to be able to I'm going to try to do 10 minutes of running and if you fall short of that, then there's no point.
[00:21:17] What you're saying is just set baby steps and improve based on your kind of baseline that you've set. So that's a good way. That's a good way to approach it. So I know throughout this episode, we kind of touched some of your experiences that have made you into the man that you are today but I want to give you an opportunity for final words, too.
[00:21:34] Any words of enlightenment positivity? We don't want it all to be about the bad things that have happened, but you know, you can share some of the good things going on in your life, any positive messages for our listeners and anywhere else you want to take it. Floor's yours.
[00:21:48] Tim Davis: The floor is mine. Wow.
[00:21:50] There's so many things I can say, but more than anything. The credit to the rooms of alcoholics anonymous and narcotics anonymous. Cause I've learned we have all these cliche [00:22:00] sayings and they're just, they're so good. Like one day at a time easy does it, let go, acceptance is the answer and have gratitude.
[00:22:08] I think most of the people I know who are leading very positive lives, usually they start their day with a daily gratitude list. Whether it's writing it down or running through it in your head. I know for me, I start and end my day with prayer and gratitude. I say my prayers and then I do my gratitude list, and I always do at least five or 10 things that I'm grateful for.
[00:22:26] And I always- I'm grateful for my life. I'm grateful for my sobriety, I'm grateful for the higher power I believe in, I'm grateful for my wife, my kids, my sponsor, my sponsees, and I'm grateful for all my accomplishments, like all the races I've been able to do, to get my master's degree, writing this book and just having a nice home, and a car since there were periods of my life where I didn't even have a car. So it just I'll let you know the, I guess the material luxuries are nice too. So just grateful for all these things. And the friends I've made along the way, like when I got sober, I had to ditch all my old friends and [00:23:00] there's a saying in AA, if you hang around the barbershop long enough, eventually you're going to get a haircut.
[00:23:04] So I just couldn't hang out with my friends who were still drinking or using, I was going to end up taking a drink or a drug with there, but I've made so, so many amazing friends in AA and NA the people that get sober, just, start working the steps, changes your life. It's just, I love all my new friends and a lot of them, several of them are also runners and triathletes so we trained together too. We kind of have this saying in the AA rooms they say, "whats said in the meeting stays in the meeting". We also, when we're out there trading on the trails, we were like, what's set on the trail and stay on the trails. A lot of times, me and my running buddies, we go out there, like my friend, Larry, he was going through a rough divorce and we went through several runs together and you just talk about it, get it off his chest and it's like free therapy out there. That's the other thing they say it in an AA meeting or in any meeting, it's just anywhere two or more gathered, one alcoholic or addict talking to another, trying to make positive change and, stay sober and focus on recovery, positive outcomes. So that, that was, that's what I would say from my experience.
[00:23:56] Gordon: Awesome. Awesome. And I guess more explicitly you can [00:24:00] just share a little bit about your book that you're, that you wrote and the book that this whole episode is based on. So just to give you an opportunity to touch on that as well.
[00:24:10] Tim Davis: Yeah. God, there's so many things I can say about this book. First and foremost, when I first wrote the first draft, it was an autobiography and then I learned that nobody wants to read an autobiography from somebody who's not famous. So then I learned how to convert it into an, a memoir after several drafts.
[00:24:26] I want to acknowledge my wife who really helped me fine tune the final draft and turn it into a reader friendly page turner kind of a book because you guys have read the book and I think it flows pretty well. I feel like it's something when you, if you read the first chapter, which does start off with the tragic event of my dad's death, it kinda, I feel like it makes you want to learn more about what happens to this guy.
[00:24:50] Ultimately, it's a hero story, and it's divided into three parts, the first part being, childhood trauma, delving into addiction and alcoholism. The second part being, being diagnosed with [00:25:00] bipolar and learning how to get sober. And then the last part, which is my favorite part is talking about a lot of the races I've done, the iron mans and the a hundred mile runs and the other successes I've had in sobriety and recovery. I think everybody likes a good redemption story or hero story, come back story if you will because a lot of people go through hard times and they like to- I think we all like happy endings, right.
[00:25:22] Gordon: And just shared name the title of the book as well.
[00:25:25] Tim Davis: Oh yeah. The book is called " Tripolar, the story of a bipolar triathlete" and it's available on Amazon, apple books, Barnes and noble, and several other outlets, book depository, and indie books. It's available in ebook, paperback and audio books.
[00:25:39] Leshawn: We'll plug a link in our description for these episodes as well.
[00:25:42] Tim Davis: Thank you so much.
[00:25:43] Gordon: Yep. So, thank you, ultra Tim for sharing your intimate experiences with us on this podcast and I'm sure our audience will appreciate everything you've said today.
[00:25:53] Tim Davis: Yeah. I hope I can inspire some others because that was my ultimate goal for the book was to inspire others who might be struggling with any of these issues [00:26:00] to let them know.
[00:26:01] If you change some things, change is possible and you can have positive things going on in your life. So I just hope I inspire others who might be struggling to get to the other side of it too. I was diagnosed at age 27, but it wasn't until I wrote this book this last year, at age 46 I'm making myself vulnerable to the whole world and sharing about it.
[00:26:17] Like I did mention that I only told my direct family and a few close friends, but I wish I would have mentioned that it took me 19 years to really like, be comfortable talking to it about, to the whole world about it.
[00:26:27] Gordon: Awesome.
[00:26:28] Tim Davis: Thank you.
[00:26:28] Gordon: Thank you.
[00:26:29] Leshawn: We appreciate that.
[00:26:29] Tim Davis: All right. Thank you guys.
[00:26:34] Narrator: Thank you for listening to the Public Health Insight podcast, your go to space for informative conversations, inspiring community action. If you enjoy our content and would like to stay up to date, follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. To learn more about our community initiatives and how you can support us visit our website at thepublicinsight.com joined the PHI community and let's make public health viral.